Addison district considering year-round school calendar

Wednesday

Jan 29, 2014 at 2:00 PM

By Dan CherryDaily Telegram Staff Writer

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to explain that Addison is considering replacing its current academic calendar with a year-round model for all students, not just at-risk and special-needs students.----

Addison Community Schools is looking to replace it's current academic calendar to a year-round program for all students.

The board of education at its meeting Monday discussed the possibility of offering the "balanced calendar" program. It would help reduce or eliminate what Superintendent Steve Guerra called "learning loss" that can occur over the three-month summer vacation.

He said studies show math and reading scores improve when at-risk and learning-challenged students have more frequent breaks in their schedule and more consistent instruction.

"That's the target audience where they see great improvement," Guerra said. He added that the at-risk students constitute the district's bottom 30 percent when it comes to learning abilities, and the goal is to help those students achieve while raising the school's overall state scorecard percentages.

Guerra reinforced the statement that the term "year-round" should not be interpreted as being "365 days."

"It is the same number of contractual days," he said — 177 days spread out over a period of 11 months. Students would attend classes for one month, then have approximately one week off. Summer break would take place across an approximate six-week timeframe in June and July, with instruction to resume Aug. 1.

The Onsted and Madison school districts are also examining the option of a balanced calendar schedule. Both Guerra and Madison Superintendent Jim Hartley said schools they have researched show the program is successful, with a waiting list of parents wanting their students to participate.

Guerra said Addison's journalism class examined the option for a research project and the opinions on the balanced calendar were mostly positive.

Madison officials said they hope to have the details finalized in May for launching the program for its pre-K to fifth-grade students in the fall. Guerra said he would like to see the program implemented at Addison by the start of the 2014-15 school year.

"The question is, could we pull it off for fall?" Guerra said. He said the teachers are supportive of the proposed program, and that a series of public forums would be planned to educate parents and students on what the balanced calendar is about.

Board President Mike Karabetsos agreed that much work needs to be done in the coming weeks on the topic.

"I agree it needs to be done," he said, "but we need to do it right. I want it to be successful."